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The Age Of Magic Begins
The Age of Technology has ended, giving way to the new Age of Magic. Merklynn sets about recruiting the bravest knights of Prysmos to wield his magic. Synopsis On the distant planet of Prysmos there existed a seven thousand year old utopian society. But the good times couldn't last and when the trinary stars around which Prysmos orbited realigned, all technology on the planet ceased to function. The Age of Technology had ended. Years later and society has fallen; the technology-based civilisiation having degraded into a medieval one. Chief amongst these is New Valarak, ruled by the heroic Leoric, who fends off a siege by the scurrilous Darkstorm. Both leaders are met by the mysterious Merklynn, who informs them that any knight of Prysmos that reaches his shrine atop Iron Mountain will be rewarded with magic. All are sceptical, but Leoric and his advisors Ectar and Feryl are convinced enough to try. Darkstorm’s lackey Mortdred eavesdrops on his and upon hearing Leoric’s intentions, Darkstorm pledges to quest as well. The next day, Merklynn addresses a large gathering of Prysmos's knights at the foot of Iron Mountain. The assembled knights begin their various routes to the top of the mountain. One group of knights enters a cave and encounters a series of falling steel doors. Rather than retreat, Witterquick bravely dashes through the traps. Merklynn appears and tells the others they must follow, but they decline. Darkstorm, Mortdred and Reekon traverse a large cavern. They take out the bridge behind them, causing a number of knights to plunge to their doom. One of them, Arzon, makes to save himself and fashion crude wings from vines and leaves, flying to safety. Unseen, Merklynn watches on. Higher up the mountain, Leoric, Ectar and Feryl are running through some corridors, not knowing that Darkstorm and his knights are listening in. Mortdred breaks off, hides and cries for help. Fooled, Leoric, Feryl and Ectar turn back, only to find Mortdred lounging against a wall. They confront him, but before Mortdred can attack, Darkstorm calls him back. The three run on and find a giant golem. They try to sneak past, but Reekon, watching from the shadows, throws a stone at it, causing it to wake up and turn on the knights. Leoric decides the best course of action is to the rush the golem. Confused by Leoric's charge, it stands aside, allowing the knights to carry on forward. Merklynn appears yet again to observe. Back in the corridors, Darkstorm has been separated from Reekon and Mortdred and is looking for them. Lost in the dark, he falls into a pit, but arrests his descent by spreading out his limbs and begins the climb back up. Elsewhere, Galadria is crossing a narrow stone bridge across an interior lake. Virulina sneaks up behind her and attacks. As they fight, they both fall into the lake, waking up a giant octopus. Virulina escapes through a small passage and blocks Galadria's escape. Grasped by the octopus, Galadria is pulled along the lake bed until she takes hold of a metal bar. It pulls free a large plug, causing all the water to drain from the lake. Galadria gets to safety and swears revenge on Virulina. In a high-ceiling room elsewhere in the labyrinth, Cravex waits amongst the rafters as a group of knights enter. When they're below him, he cuts loose a bee hive on them. The knights flee, dropping their weapons in their panic. Cravex happily scoops the valuables up. In yet another cavern, Cindarr and Cryotek arrive on opposite ends of yet another narrow bridge. Old enemies, the two resume hostilies. Cindarr jumps onto a giant icicle and kicks adjacent ones loose, burying Cryotek. Cryotek smashes his way free, cursing the fleeing Cindarr's name. Darkstorm, meanwhile, is finishing his climb out of the pit. Resuming his wandering through the dungeon area, he is attracted by the calls of Lexor, who, along with Virulina, Cindarr and Cravex, is hanging from a ceiling by his feet. Darkstorm agrees to free them, but only if they swear fealty to him. With varying degrees of enthusiasm, the four agree. Leoric, Feryl and Ectar are lost in a literal maze, but Feryl catches scent of fresh air and is able to lead them out. As they continue on, neither Feryl nor Leoric notice Ectar slip off into an adjacent corridor until the pair enter a large, abandoned dining room. Ectar goes to a side entrance and spots Darkstorm and his new cronies waiting in ambush. He runs out and loudly warns his friends. A fight breaks out regardless, with Ectar dubbing their opponents the Darkling Lords, a name Darkstorm takes a shine to. As the two forces fight, Cryotek, Galadria, Arzon and Witterquick wander into the dining room as well and join in. As the melee breaks out, Lexor takes the opportunity to hide under the table. Merklynn appears and tells the group to stop fighting - there's enough magic for everyone. Their last test is to break down the final door. Cryotek runs at the door, smashing it. A bright, glowing light bursts forth from behind the door and seemingly disintegrates the knights. Caught in a whirlstrom of energy, the group reappears in... the dining room. They go through the door and arrive in Merklynn's shrine proper. Merklynn congratulates the group on being able to reach the shrine and dubs them the Visionaries. He decrees that they're worthy of magic that will help them and their people prosper. Leoric asks what Merklynn wants in return and he cagily admits that he will want to them to perform certain tasks some time down the line. Sidestepping the quid-pro-quo, Merklynn bestows the group with animal totems based on their actions in reaching the shrine. Arzon gains the eagle, Cindarr the gorilla, Witterquick the cheetah. Cravex is given the phylot, Ectar the fox and Mortdred the beetle. Feryl is rewarded with the wolf totem, Virulina the shark, Galadria the dolphin. Lexor’s cowardice grants him the armadillo, Cryotek the bear and Reekon is given the lizard totem. Leoric is granted the lion totem and, for his climbing skills and “all round sliminess”, Darkstorm is given the totem of a giant mollusk. Merklynn warns that they may not be able to entirely control their totem forms, before bidding those with staffs to dip them in the pool. This grants them each a great power; Wisdom, Lightspeed, Strength, Knowledge, Decay, Destruction, Fear and Invulnerability. He reassures those without power staffs that they too will find they have great power. Finished, Merklynn bids them all to leave and creates a whirlpool under them, flushing them to the bottom of the mountain while cackling maniacally. Outside, a fight breaks out between the two factions, but is quickly stopped by Darkstorm, who declares a truce. Leoric cautiously agrees before leading his knights away. As they leave, Darkstorm gloats that he doesn’t intend to keep the truce at all. Some time later, Arzon is jauntily running through rocky wasteland when he hears a woman's cry for help. Heroically, he runs to her aide, pulling her from a ditch. He tries to impress the woman by showing her his magic power staff and summons the Bearer of Knowledge. He asks what he knows of the woman and to his shock, the Bearer informs him that woman is really Virulina. Before he can react, Virulina removes her disguise and attacks! Characters In order of appearance Quotes To be added Notes Animation and technical errors *It sure is handy all the knights wear armour with identical blank black panels on the front for their totems to be transferred onto. Story errors *Although trinary stars might well alter their orbit, it probably takes a great deal longer than the animation in this episode suggest. ie. decades rather than seconds. *And how that suddenly negates all technology from working is better left not pondered. *Thankfully, because the core premise of the show concerns magic, you can explain away odd little things, like the cluster of beehives located inside the Iron Mountain, by saying a wizard did it. *The Bearer of Knowledge speaks in a very scratchy voice this episode. It will soon be changed to a more pompous voice provided by Jim Cummings. *If you were being picky, you could argue that some of the animal totems are rather arbitrarily awarded. Galadria gains the dolphin for "underwater intelligence", which is presumably different to above water intelligence somehow. Yet she was aware of Virulina's sneak attack by having smelt her perfume (she suggests flippantly) which would surely be as worthy of the wolf totem as Feryl's feat. *Merklynn assures those without power staffs that they too will discover they control great magic. Which is true for everyone except Virulina and Galadria, who will discover they get nothing. *Where Arzon learns the verse for his power staff isn't revealed. Continuity notes *Feryl and Leoric talk about whether to install a jousting arena or a botanical garden in New Valarak during the reconstruction. This topic will crop up again and again. *The narration gives the implication that there's a long period (ie decades) between the realignment of the sun and the rest of the episode's events, but based on the script, the characters' ages and events of later episodes, it's likely to only be a few years at most. *The term Darkling Lords is coined in this episode, by Ectar of all people. The name Spectral Knights isn't used until next episode. *From the off we begin to see signs of not only Merklynn's neutrality, as he happily flushes the Spectral Knights away with the Darkling Lords, but also his ulterior motives, as he mentions that the knights will be required to perform tasks in exchange for the continued use of their magic. This will become a theme through later episodes. Trivia *For an 80s cartoon, The Age Of Magic Begins is surprisingly light on plot and instead more focused on developing character. All of the main fifteen main characters get a bit of spotlight in this episode, which you can thank the animal totem concept for. Because they're distributed based on the user's personality, we have to see said personalities demonstrated for the allocations to make sense. *The downside of this is that a lot of the episode is spent in various caverns, with characters walking across narrow bridges. *Arzon is the first character shown to use both his totem form and his power staff. *The dialogue script for this episode is included on the Metrodome DVD release and brings to light a number of interesting bits of information. **Darkstorm's siege of New Valarak was originally scripted to be a response to Leoric freeing a group of (intended) slaves from Darkstorm. **The pilot of the Sky Claw seen in the Age of Technology is revealed in the script as Ectar, even though he speaks with Cravex's voice. Given that Ectar was a cop before the fall, it would suggest the vehicle might have originally be a police vehicle. **The construction worker whose machine breaks down at a crucial moment is revealed as Cindarr in the script. This isn't as big a surprise, as Peter Cullen's distinct voice for the character is easy to spot. ** What's more surprising is that the TV newsreader with the short hair and bandanna is Virulina. **The golem is named as a "gargoyle" in the script, though that doesn't really fit with its depiction. We've chosen to go with the more appropriate term. **When Mortdred complains that those without power staffs are being cheated, the script has Reekon and Virulina join in. "We're getting rooked", Virulina complains. So not only did she get cheated out of extra magic for not having a power staff, but she got cheated out of complaining about it too. **As the Visionaries descend into brawling outside the shrine, the script has Leoric break up the fight before Darkstorm declares peace. The Spectral Knight even recommends that it be best that no-one uses their magic at all. **The Bearer of Knowledge has more lines in the script and is much snarkier to Arzon. He complains at being wasted in something as trivial as facilitating Arzon chatting up a girl and tries to fob him off with obvious information like her height. It's only when Arzon presses that the Bearer points out that it's Virulina. *The script for this episode was directly adapted into the first issue of the Star Comics series. Some of the aforementioned cut elements were included in the comic, along with a large amount of directly lifted lines. Home Media Releases To be added References Category:Animated Series Category:Episodes Category:Fiction